No proposal to lease 1k acres of RINL land to Adani: Steel Secy

Visakhapatnam The Ministry of Steel has declared that it is not aware of any proposal to lease out 1,000 acres belonging to Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to the Gangavaram Port, which was recently acquired by Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ).

Responding to a representation submitted by noted social activist and former IAS officer EAS Sarma, Nagendra Nath Sinha, Secretary of the Ministry of Steel, stated that the ministry is not aware of any proposal to lease land to Adani Gangavaram Port. There were unconfirmed reports that the port management is in talks with RINL to acquire 1,000 acres for increasing its stockyard.

Gangavaram Port project site was originally earmarked in the DPR prepared for the steel plant for constructing a captive jetty. However, due to political pressure, RINL had to alienate nearly 1200 acres to facilitate construction of a port under PPP mode by the State Government and DVS Raju-led consortium. In lieu of land given by the State Government, it had 10.4 per cent equity which was subsequently sold off to the Adani Group to complete 100 per cent acquisition of the port sometime ago. After the Gangavaram Port became operational under the management of DVS Raju-led consortium, the RINL management had also made attempts to obtain permission from the Ministry of Steel to construct a captive jetty at the waterfront area belonging to it. The Adani Gangavaram Port is located right in the backyard of the steel plant.

Recently, there were protests by the RINL unions, which had represented to the Central Government sometime ago to transfer the ownership of the port to the steel plant following alleged refusal to unload ships which had brought raw material over non-payment of dues. However, the port management had categorically denied the allegations and took strong exception to the attempts by the union activists to barge into the port compound. The Adani Group also declared that it had no interest in taking part in the privatisation of RINL.

In the response to the email sent by Sarma, the Steel Secretary said, “The ministry has been supporting the RINL in its endeavour to acquire iron ore mines. However, as you would be aware that mines are a State subject. Therefore, RINL’s efforts have not borne fruit so far. It is also submitted for your kind consideration that any enterprise, whether CPSE or otherwise, is an entity by itself and must exist on its own merits. Having said that, it is also submitted that the government is working towards assuring that RINL remains as a going concern.”

Thanking Sinha for prompt response, Sarma said. “While I feel happy that your ministry has had no hand in any proposal that involves RINL’s lands being alienated to a private company, I hope that RINL’s management takes note of my concerns and desists from leasing out its lands to any private company.”

According to Sarma, the value of 1,000 acres will be far in excess of Rs 20,000 crore and VSP itself may need the land for meeting its requirement in the future.

RINL has a land bank of 22,000 acres. The disinvestment of RINL by way of 100 per cent privatisation is under process by the by Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) under the Ministry of Finance. During his recent visit to VSP, Sinha wished that RINL would be able to optimise its productivity to emerge as the nation’s best steel plant. During interactions with the trade unions, he complimented the RINL Collective for its efforts to maintain the plant very clean and neat and assured that he would look into various concerns expressed by them.